Thrown out onto the street for a renovation porn TV show

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Nothing sums up the neoliberal pus that is Auckland’s housing market better than this story of a tenant thrown out onto the street because a production company has bought his house for another reality TV renovation porn show.

Evicted by The Block: Tenant must be out by Wednesday

Father-of-three Brad Williams is on the hunt for a new rental property after his home was bought by The Block NZ producers.

He says his large three-bedroom bungalow, which sits on a 726 sq m section on Renfrew Ave in Sandringham, was sold last month for $1.64 million and he has until next Wednesday to find a new home after he was given 21 days notice to vacate the property by his landlord.

As ironic as the 250 000  hungry NZ children living in poverty licking the TV screens while MasterChef broadcasts, this father of 3’s plight highlights the weakness of renter rights, the over heated property speculation of Auckland’s housing market and the counter productive nature of public broadcasting we now watch.

My eyes would roll if they weren’t perpetually locked into that position after National won last years election.

 

 

49 COMMENTS

    • 42 days is correct but something tells me the whole story may not have been told here… Media tend to misrepresent things on a daily basis

      • something tells me the whole story may not have been told here…

        “Something”?

        Well, that tells us a lot!

        “Something” tells me you should give me all your money. Want to go with that, Buzz Orville f Fairhurst?

  1. If this were fiction, it would be satire.

    But I fear that this is the new reality that New Zealanders have accepted for the 21st Century.

    It was never meant to be like this.

  2. It’d be interesting to see how the producers of The Block film the program if there was; the constant sound of chanting through megaphones, people chaining themselves to scaffolding, and other disruptive protest action. This seems like they’re handing people concerned with housing inequality in Auckland a media platform on which to express those views.

    • Seriously we are steadily marching toward that stage. Would love to see how they deal with 100,000+ in front of the beehive with torches and pitchforks. If they keep this shit up, we’ll be sure to find out.

      • John Key acts like a vampire stalking the poor, sucking their dignity and livelihood, easy to see who at the beehive the mob should target, marching with torches and pitchforks for peasant rights.

  3. … 3 bedroom house , 726 sq m section , $ 1.64 million .

    What , about that price isn’t a madness . A real , actual , bona-fide madness . A person could be forgiven for thinking a foreign owned bank was involved in luring the purchaser into shouldering that kind of Fed Reserve debt .

    There’s something very , very scary going on here . Are we all becoming tenants in our own country , and if so , are we all going to be evicted one day ?

    It would pay to remember ; yankee doodle jonky-stien’s just a rung in a very tall ladder . Without him , that next step couldn’t be taken . And so on and so on .

    • John Key openning doors to poverty in New Zealand, time to show him the door, and boot his arrogant ass on the way out

  4. [Mia, others have been warned and suspended for breaking the Court suppression order on the Sabin case. If you choose to repeat breaking that suppression order again, thereby opening up TDB and it’s administrators to legal action, you will be permanently banned. -ScarletMod]

    • Isn’t there a suppression order on this info Mia, has it been lifted.

      [Original comment by Mia has been removed. – ScarletMod]

      • Reply to Elle:
        If I have misread this post, I apologise.

        If I haven’t – why should companies doing dubious things have the same level of protection as individuals?

        If anyone knows – did either the previous landlord or the buyer act to find and offer alternative accommodation? Or not?

        And have the assorted supine Opposition spokespersons on Housing made any moves toward improving the truly tenuous protections we allow renters in this country? Or is it all hand-wringing and tut!? Dita de Boni’s ‘the wet noodles of power’. Just so.

  5. “My eyes would roll if they weren’t perpetually locked into that position after National won last years election” – totally how I feel

  6. That tells us all we need to know about NZ in 2015. Reality TV takes precedent over peoples lives. What have we come to? How many sheeples watch that shite anyway.

  7. Yeah 21 days did not seem like the right time frame to me either for a tenant. But it is decades since I was one. It was always related to length of lease in Aussie, I do remember that much. So more notice if you had 6 to 12 month lease.The one to avoid was the 2 week tenancy no lease. You paid your rent 2 weeks in advance and that was all the notice you were entitled to.

  8. 1.6 million…gee don’t think my wages have gone up that much, to reach that target. The only ones I can see smiling gleefully over New Zealand, in the last 6 long years, are the banks. Funny how our PM was a banker… Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.

  9. To those readers who have picked up that this story smells, well done you have a keen nose for bullsh*t.

    This person is in fact being evicted for non payment of rent over a long period of time. The eviction notice was served weeks ago, long before the sale of the house.
    The original ‘story’ has nothing at all to do with the sale of this house and subsequent eviction of the tenant to make a TV show.

    The original story ran in the Herald but was pulled after about 10 minutes when the Herald realised they had been duped by this person after speaking to people who know the truth.

    It could not be considered good reporting in any form to copy and paste an unverifed story and run it as the truth. Shame on you.

        • And what in the blog is wrong? The unbelievable prices of Auckland’s property market speculated out of the reach of most NZers, the appalling high costs of rents and the total lack of renters rights – if a father of 3 is getting kicked out because he fell over on his rent and the producers roll up to buy the property – how is it any less of a story?

          • Stay on track here, my point is the original story is BS.
            And – there is far more going on here than you know

            • A Father of 3 kicked out onto the street because he is late on Rent and a Production house turning up to buy the property – how is this NOT a story and a sign of the times?

            • And – there is far more going on here than you know

              So you keep telling us, “Bob”. And yet, except for your hints and “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” we are no better informed.

              You post allegations without evidence and then insist, with a wink, that you are privy to information the rest of us aren’t?

              I’m sorry, but that doesn’t wash. As far as I’m concerned, you are a clever little muck-raker, cloaked in anonymity, trying to under-mine a story, with gossip and unsubstantiated hints of “the truth”.

              Unless you have good evidence, then you are not much better than the village gossip – with ulterior motives.

              • Frank please present your evidence of any truth in this story??
                (Martyn can you please do the same??)

                You have read the sensationalist headline and accepted it as fact and are now attempting to defend both the headline and your blind belief that what you have read are facts.

                A story posted without evidence of fact.

                A story from unproven statements that an illegal eviction has taken place to make a TV show.

                A story that was cut and pasted from the Herald website without being checked for accuracy.

                Herald did find out the facts and removed the story within minutes.

                Frank, do you have anything at all to prove Williams story is true?

                Do you have anything at all to prove what I say is false?

                And then you resort to trolling and name calling while you hide behind your computer screen.

                [Bob, I have allowed your reference to “trolling” and “hiding behind a computer screen”, despite my intuition that you are engaging in mischief bordering on demation. Unless your next post contains hard evidence that backs up your claims, please consider your welcome on this site rescinded. – ScarletMod]

                • A Father of 3 is kicked out of his house for falling into arrears and the property is then bought by a production company for renovation porn TV – how is this example not a symbol of the wider problems of housing in Auckland?

                • Frank please present your evidence of any truth in this story??

                  Frank, do you have anything at all to prove Williams story is true?

                  Whoa there, Anonymous User Bob… You present us with an unsubstantiated allegation, anonymously, and you want me to prove/disprove what you’ve alleged?!

                  I’d like to see you try get away with defending defamation in a Court with that angle.

                  And then you resort to trolling and name calling while you hide behind your computer screen.

                  Really, “Bob”? Do you really want to go with that?

                  So far you’ve spread rumour and innuendo, anonymously. No evidence at all. I think the ball is in your court to put up or shut up. Otherwise, this comes across as a rather weak, pathetic attempt at smearing someone’s reputation.

                • I invited Martyn to contact me yesterday via direct email – in that email I offered to provide the hard evidence in a private environment.

                  Still waiting for a reply….

                  Anyway you all have a Happy Easter.
                  I am done with this.

                  • So, no answer to my question to you, “Bob”, and “Lara” (who happen to share the same IP number, according my sources)?

                    What is your connection to each other?

                    What is your connection to this story?

                    Why are you so keen that Mr Williams’ reputation is demolished through unsubstantiated allegations – and the reputation of the property owners is vindicated?

                    Are you, “Bob” and “Lara”, the owners of that property?

                    • As I noted on Martyn’s original facebook post, I immediately saw that there was a deficit in reporting coming from The Herald, but unfortunately re-reported as verbatim by TDB. It is shocking how amateur MSM have become, the question of why did he not get 42 days notice should have been asked by the Herald reporter and would have led to digging deeper and uncovering what is (perhaps) the correct facts, or at least the other side of the story. I am appalled by modern journalism where almost ever story carries only one side. It is nbot my intention to take the focus away from the insanity that is current house prices or to appear unsympathetic towards the plight of any parent facing eviction for whatever reason, there is still a story there, but the glaringly obvious fact that was overlooked at the outset should serve as a warning that journalism is primarily (supposed to be) about report the FACTS, which requires actually verifying the facts in advance, anyone with a couple of years experience in renting would have noticed this error.

                    • A Father of 3 is in arrears for rent, gets thrown out onto the street and a TV production company buys his house for renovation porn – this seems to sum up perfectly the horrifying situation of property speculation and the erosion of renter rights in NZ

    • “Bob”. You refer to publishing “unverified” stories.

      Can you please verify your claim that Mr Williams ” is in fact being evicted for non payment of rent over a long period of time”?

      Otherwise, please explain why we should take the word of a person who has not even had the courage to put his/her name to the allegation.

      • I have very valid reason to withhold my real name.

        You could contact the owner of the property , she will verify the correct story as she did to the NZ Herald when the story first ran – after which Herald pulled the story.

        Go the property this Tuesday to watch the Bailiff evict the person for…non payment of rent.
        Go to the NZ Herald website, search Bradley Williams and find…nothing. The story was pulled.

        Google Bradley Williams, – News – the top search result is the NZ Herald story, click on the link and… the story is gone.

  10. Come on people, houses get bought and sold all day every day!!

    This reeks of sensationalism! Since when does it become newsworthy when a landlord decides to sell their property and the tenant needs to find a new home? Puhleez! The fact some stupid TV show may be the purchaser means squat.

    Surely there are far more important issues to report on? Besides, I’m pretty sure not all the facts are being represented here. I think Martyn had better go back and check his sources before presenting the public with half baked incorrect reporting that is utterly not newsworthy!

    • A Father of 3 kicked out onto the street because he is late on Rent and a Production house turning up to buy the property – how is this NOT a story and a sign of the times?

    • Surely there are far more important issues to report on?

      A family being evicted is not an important issue to you, Lara?

      Is that how you rate importantance?

      …I’m pretty sure not all the facts are being represented here. I think Martyn had better go back and check his sources …

      More sly innuendo; no new facts, just hints and innuendo. Someone is feeling very, very threatened by this story.

      Someone is going to a lot of effort to try to undermine this story.

  11. Interesting that the people attacking the veracity of this story are;

    (a) anonymous

    (b) lacking in credible facts

    (c) lacking in credible sources

    Someone is feeling very threatened.

  12. Not feeling threatened in the least Frank, no vested intetest and nothing to gain. Just secure in the knowledge that the truth will prevail.

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